Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, October 30, laid the foundation stones for two extensions of the Ahmedabad Metro — Phase-2A, the Airport Extension, and Phase-2B, the GIFT City Extension — during a programme in Banaskantha district where he launched and dedicated development projects worth more than Rs 14,000 crore, IANS reported.

The two metro extensions

Phase-2A will run 6.032 km from Koteshwar Road to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport with five stations: Ashram Road, Koteshwar Prachin Mandir, Sabarmati River and Sardar Nagar on elevated track, and an underground station at the airport, according to the Prime Minister's Office statement carried in the reports. Phase-2B will add 3.33 km of elevated track and three stations between GIFT City and Shahpur. Together, the two extensions add more than 9.3 km to the planned metro network.

The Union Cabinet approved Phase-2A on June 10 at a cost of Rs 2,169.04 crore, including interest during construction, and the central sanction letter of July 7 asks the Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) to build the line within four years of approval, which points to a June 2030 deadline. The Centre's own share is capped at Rs 368.58 crore, so any cost overrun falls on the Gujarat government, according to the sanction letter details reported after the foundation event. No cost or deadline has been published for Phase-2B.

Most of Phase-2A's civil work sits in a single contract covering 4.97 km of elevated viaduct with the four elevated stations and a 1.01 km cut-and-cover tunnel to the airport station, with a 36-month construction period. Gujarat Samachar reported on October 26 that the contract was awarded for Rs 859.25 crore, 2.28 per cent below GMRC's estimate of Rs 879.27 crore, and Metro Rail Today named the winner as a joint venture of Ranjit Buildcon and SAM (India) Builtwell; GMRC had not listed the award on its website by October 30.

Roads and trains in the same package

At the same Banaskantha programme, the Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone for widening the Ahmedabad-Mehsana Road (State Highway-41) from four lanes to eight at an estimated cost of around Rs 2,600 crore, and flagged off the Ahmedabad (Sabarmati)-Varanasi Express and the Mehsana-Becharaji-Sabarmati MEMU service, IANS reported.

Source: IANS via HiIndia